[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 09 Nov 1822 - Parish Rates

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 09 Nov 1822   (p. 3, col. 4)

 

PARISH RATES. 

 

A printed statement of the expence of maintaining the poor of the township of Wigton has just been put into our hands. It appears by
it, that for the year ended April 20, 1821, the maintenance of the poor cost the town, out of the poor-rates, on an average, £21 :
2s. 1d. per week: for the year ended April 20, 1822, £18 : 17s. 3d. per week; for the six weeks ended on the 1st. of June last, £22
: 18s. 1d. per week; and for the twenty weeks ending on the 19th ultimo, the average expenditure per week has been reduced to £11 :
5s. 10d. The select vestry say they "have endeavoured as much as possible to ascertain the actual situation of the paupers, to
enable them to guard against imposition, and to put in practice the strictest economy"; that "the rates have been strictly
collected, and a saving been effected by the establishment of industry among the paupers in the workhouse, and by a determination to
prevent as much as possible the waste of the public money in cases of bastardy." They complain, in common with other townships and
parishes, that much expense has been brought upon the quarter by persons who might have supported themselves had they been
industrious and economical, and they caution public-house keepers against permitting persons to tipple who receive parish relief.
The average maintenance of each person in the workhouse from last April to October, for food only, is 1s. 4½d. per week. 

 

We view these statements of the maintenance of the poor with considerable interest; and perhaps the Legislature would do well in
calling upon the different parishes and townships for a copy of them, as they would disclose an amazing difference in management. 

 

We have also before us, the Workington Report for the year ending March 22, 1822. In that township, during the year, there was a
deficiency of £217 2s. 10d. in abatements of poor-rates, empty houses, and uncollected rates. In the Wigton half-yearly account, the
abatement of poor-rates, empty houses, and arrears, amount to only £5 13s. 8d. In Workington, old infirm people chiefly have 1s. per
week; in Wigton, the same class of persons mostly have 1s. 9d. per week. Under the head of expences which do not contribute to the
relief of the poor, such as salaries, law-charges, journies, letters, &c. the Workington report contains items exceeding £400 a
year; while the Wigton half-yearly statement exhibits only £5 : 19s. 3d. under the same heads of charge. But, on inquiry, we have
been informed that the Wigton salaries, including collection of rates, assistant-overseer, and governor of the workhouse, amount to
£22 per annum, which sum does not appear to have been entered into the half-yearly report in any other shape than that of
engagements contracted, but now unpaid, upon which basis the estimate of weekly expenditure appears to be made. The Workington total
expence for the poor in the last year, amounts to £1564 : 1s. 9½d.; the Wigton charge for the same period, is £981 : 7s. The former
township is saddled with expences which do not contribute to the relief of the poor, to the amount of upwards of £400 a-year; while
similar charges in the latter are no more than £36 a-year, taking the expenditure of the last twenty weeks as an example. 

 

Attentively considering these statements, we repeat, that a collection of all the printed parish reports in the kingdom would
present a body of facts of great national importance, and ultimately lead to a very sensible decrease of the public burthens. We are
not aware of what has occasioned the rapid diminution of expenditure at Wigton, since the first of June last; it would have been
worth stating. We shall naturally feel a little curious to inspect the next return of the township of Workington. 

 

 

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